KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The 20-team field is set and the Battle for the Red Banner is ready to begin, as the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics announced the qualifiers for the 2025 NAIA Football Championship Series.
The top 12 seeds in the postseason are off until Nov. 29, with four first-round games, featuring teams seeded No. 13 through No. 20, played on campus sites Nov. 22. All paths lead to Dec. 20 and Fort Worth, Texas, where the season’s final two teams will meet in the 70th-Annual NAIA Football Championship Game at Crowley ISD Multipurpose Stadium.
Games will air on Urban Edge Network throughout the Football Championship Series, carrying contests on campuses that elected to opt-in to UEN coverage in the postseason. The NAIA Football Championship game will air on both NAIA Network and Urban Edge Network, with links to URLs, apps, and smart TV information at www.naia.org/watch. For a full list of broadcast links for all games, visit the 2025 NAIA Football Championship Series Schedule, which also includes links to live stats, and following each round, scores and recaps.
This year’s championship field includes 13 automatic qualifiers that won their respective conference regular-season or division titles, as well as seven at-large selections made by the NAIA Football National Selection Committee.
The 2025 field features 10 teams that repeat from 2024, while three teams ended playoff droughts of seven years or longer. William Penn (Iowa) last made the NAIA postseason in 2012, Campbellsville (Ky.) in 2015, and Southeastern (Fla.) last made it in 2017. The remaining seven teams have each appeared at least once in the last four seasons. In all, 2025 FCS qualifiers boast a collective record of 180-30 (.857).
Later in the week, check NAIA.org for a full FCS preview and weekly game notes, including team-by-team capsules, national statistical leaders, and a full index of all NAIA games in the 2025 season.
2025 NAIA Football Championship Series Top 12 Seeds
| Seed | Institution | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | Grand View (Iowa) | 10-0 |
| 2 |  | Keiser (Fla.) | 10-0 |
| 3 |  | Montana Tech | 11-0 |
| 4 |  | Friends (Kan.) | 11-0 |
| 5 |  | Benedictine (Kan.) | 10-1 |
| 6 |  | Marian (Ind.) | 10-1 |
| 7 |  | Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) | 9-1 |
| 8 |  | College of Idaho | 9-1 |
| 9 |  | Morningside (Iowa) | 9-2 |
| 10 |  | Dordt (Iowa) | 9-1 |
| 11 |  | Indiana Wesleyan | 9-2 |
| 12 |  | Campbellsville (Ky.) | 8-2 |
2025 NAIA Football Championship Series First Round Games
| Home | Visitor | ||
|---|---|---|---|
 | #13 William Penn (Iowa), 10-1 |  | #20 Texas Wesleyan, 7-4 |
 | #14 Carroll (Mont.), 8-2 |  | #17 St. Thomas (Fla.), 7-3 |
 | #15 Southeastern (Fla.), 8-2 |  | #19 Reinhardt (Ga.), 7-3 |
 | #16 Saint Francis (Ind.), 9-2 |  | #18 Evangel (Mo.), 9-2 |
Hey Jason Is the 2nd round set with 5 v 12 6v11 7v10 and 8v9 with the Top 4 seeds playing the winners of this weekends games?
Not yet, those will all be official next Saturday.
Just to be “cool and hip” how about “glazing over” the Heart with 2 Top 5 teams and 3 in the Top 13
Surprised St Thomas’s 2 blowouts by LWU and Keiser didn’t hurt them against McPherson’s 20 point loss to Friends, one of Friends’ closer wins. I like the Bobcats but a McPherson shouldn’t be penalized ‘so much’ for a season ending 3-point road loss to a 7-3 team.
My thought process was McPherson would make it in. But I think KWU losing to Southwestern hurt MAC because it was essentially a loss to an unranked team. STU’s losses were all to ranked teams in the postseason, which actually opens an argument for Montana Western being considered over STU.